#monome controller

I believe we are at a limit as to how many controllers we find to be useful in a production setting.  There are geardos out there who buy gear simply because they like to buy new gear – but what about the ones who have weeded out the necessary from the unnecessary?  I would think that they may have spent a year churning gear in and out the factor before they find something they actually use in their setup.  The problem with controllers is that they are either not modular enough, or they are too specific.  Few people have the money to use a different controller for each specific task, so they end up using what is best for all situations as a compromise. [embed width="656"]http://youtu.be/QKxzbvRs284[/embed] The traditional “monome” layout is preferred for multiple reasons.  The symmetry it provides helps you organize your sessions and tracks with great ease, and the idea that each button is equal to the button next to it helps your brain organize sections of the controller into a hierarchy.  The Launchpad is spot on for some of us, giving us just enough space to work with, without adding faders and knobs that tack on to the real estate.   http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2013/05/21/novation-launchpad-s-demo/

We give controllers a lot of credit for basically replacing the need for actual hardware and actual computers, but where did these designs originate from?  The keyboard MIDI controller is pretty obvious – they needed a keyboard without actually having the real deal, so they emulated it and controlled it with a computer.  The jog wheel controllers that we see so often obvious get their form from the infamous CDJs, made by Pioneer.  The button pad controllers that we find in the usual four by four configurations owe their design to the guys at Akai and Roland who had been pushing the lines of what a drum machine could do. [embed width="656"]http://vimeo.com/68759877[/embed] Now, when we see something like the Ableton Push or the Novation Launchpad, we might think that Ableton had something to do with the origination of that design but it was actually Ableton and Novation who took cues from other designs.  The basic monome was around nearly ten years ago, when hardware designers where looking for an instrument that could be all things to anyone.  We use them to control music these days, but they could essentially be used to control video, lights, and other aspects of the live production performance.  http://createdigitalmusic.com/2013/06/bhoreal-makes-grids-color-open-source-final-hours-of-funding-lasers-robot/